What is Wi-Fi 6E: Routers, devices and how it’s better than Wi-Fi 6

What is Wi-Fi 6E: Routers, devices and how it'due south ameliorate than Wi-Fi 6

(Image credit: Netgear)

Just when yous got used to Wi-Fi half dozen existence the best mode to build a dwelling network, Wi-Fi 6e arrives with the power to change the style yous think about and utilise wireless data. By adding a new 6GHz transmission band and opening upwards a slew of loftier-operation data channels, Wi-Fi 6e can boost data delivery to new levels just information technology suffers from express range.

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What is Wi-Fi 6e?

Based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax specification, Wi-Fi 6e opens up 1.2GHz of high frequency spectrum from v.925- to vii.125GHz for moving huge gobs of information. This makes it the biggest improver to Wi-Fi since the original 802.11b gear came out more than 20 years agone.

"This is a gigantic leap forrad for Wi-Fi," says Kevin Robinson, senior vice president for marketing at the Wi-Fi Alliance. "Information technology pushes performance to the limit and can assist enable new uses."

In addition to all-out online gaming and more easily viewing 8K online videos, Wi-Fi 6e can assist keep videoconferencers from staring at frozen faces and opens upwards new vistas in telemedicine too as augmented and virtual reality. (Meanwhile, Wi-Fi seven devices won't be available until the tardily 2023 at the primeval.)

Wi-Fi 6 vs. Wi-Fi 6e

A look inside the Wi-Fi 6e spec shows there are several key performance updates. In add-on to a depression latency blueprint that will make gamers drool, Wi-Fi 6e can tolerate interference improve and adds more 100 new information channels compared to Wi-Fi 6. In fact, it offers seven extra ultra-wide 160MHz channels – up from Wi-Fi 6'southward unmarried usable 160MHz channel.

While it matches Wi-Fi 6 with an overall bandwidth of 9.6Gbps, WiFi-6e can help users frustrated with low throughput by spreading the data out over a wider swath of spectrum by using the 2.4-, 5- and now the 6GHz bands. Retrieve of Wi-Fi 6e as a cascade of data: up close to the router, 6GHz's acme performance will dominate, then it volition automatically switch over to 5GHz as you get down the hallway and finally rely on 2.4GHz for long range connections.

"Wi-Fi 6e will exist most beneficial in areas where high-speed data is most of import," adds the Wi-Fi Alliance's Robinson. "Information technology will provide an actress punch of performance."

When is Wi-Fi 6e coming?

The expect for Wi-Fi 6e equipment will probable exist much shorter than earlier wireless information specs. That'southward because some of it is already here. The showtime Wi-Fi 6e routers have already started selling and we'll brainstorm to see more than Wi-Fi 6e routers and mesh systems throughout 2021.

After that, Wi-Fi 7 is on the way. The details are still being worked out, merely it volition be based on the 802.11be's Extremely High Throughput (EHT) applied science. This next-gen spec has promise to further lower latency, while raising available bandwidth and making sure anybody at home has access to all the information they want.

But these changes are all in the developmental stages, and nosotros don't expect to see Wi-Fi 7 arriving to consumer products until 2024, making Wi-Fi 6e the biggest standard change to spotter for in the coming years.

Wi-Fi 6e routers

On the router side of the 6e equation, there are chips available from Intel, Broadcom, Qualcomm and others that will be used to create a new generation of routers. A glance at our list of the routers of CES 2021 shows several Wi-Fi 6e routers on the horizon.

The first three products are the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000, the Linksys AXE8400 mesh system and the Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500.

All are tri-band premium devices that will sell for between $450 for a conventional router and $one,200 for a 3-slice mesh networking kit.

Wi-Fi 6e devices

At the receiving cease, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra phone has Wi-Fi 6e built in. Others are expected to jump in with their own hardware over the yr.

The good news is that the Wi-Fi Alliance has started certifying the new Wi-Fi 6e gear that it volition non merely work with existing systems but a new generation of wireless gear. By summer, look for hundreds of Wi-Fi 6e products, from routers, laptops and tablets to phones and augmented reality headsets.

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Brian Nadel is a freelance writer and editor who specializes in engineering reporting and reviewing. He works out of the suburban New York Metropolis area and has covered topics from nuclear ability plants and Wi-Fi routers to cars and tablets. The former editor-in-chief of Mobile Computing and Communications, Nadel is the recipient of the TransPacific Writing Honor.